Sunday's Washington Post has an interesting op-ed piece that I encourage all of you to read. The piece is written by Laurie David who is one of the producers of Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth". The producers of the movie offered 50,000 free copies of the DVD to the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) for distribution to science classroom teachers, but the NSTA refused the offer. Here is a quote from the article:
"In their e-mail rejection, they expressed concern that other 'special interests' might ask to distribute materials, too; they said they didn't want to offer 'political' endorsement of the film; and they saw 'little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members' in accepting the free DVDs....
... Still, maybe the NSTA (is) just being extra cautious. But there was one more curious argument in the e-mail: Accepting the DVDs, they wrote, would place 'unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.' One of those supporters, it turns out, is the Exxon Mobil Corp."
I know nothing about the NSTA, its operations, or its politics, and maybe the association's members have no idea that this incident occurred. I encourage you to mention it to your favorite science teacher.
We have had a discussion of An Inconvenient Truth on this blog before. Some critics argue that the movie presents only evidence that supports its conclusion, and ignores or tries to dispute truths that it finds, well, inconvenient. It may be that NSTA saw the film as being more about politics than about science.
Dr. Gerry Wheeler, Executive Director of NSTA, has posted a response to the Washington Post Op-Ed article.
Look, I've been spending the past hour just looking up these websites and placing my comments on them and, to tell you what, I'm very angry. The NSTA is making a very big mistake. I'm just a teenager who happens to be on a warpath, I know, but this is what I think: I truly believe that the NSTA should publish all facts on all subjects in science no matter who funds them and if their funding stops than they can look them in the face and say, "At least, we share the truth to the world." They really need to reathink what they are doing and try to fix it. Us teens want the truth, no matter what it is.
Nothing more dangerous than a teenager on the warpath, except for maybe a bored cop without a doughnut!! Perhaps global warming is a good thing. More and more people are beginning to open their eyes. Will it bring the world together?? Nothing like a slow death to bring people together. I suspect that if we do not act soon the Earth will! How you say, well consider this-the earth has been trying to cool down since its birth(venting magma and hot gases and springs) but now it is having a thougher time so expect it to blow its top volcanoes, earthquakes etc etc. Happy Earthday and stay far away from tectonic plate edges and volcanoes but that is only common sense.
I don't believe anyone has ever established a link between climate and volcanism. The inner Earth generates its own hear from the decay of radioactive elements. This will continue at its own pace, regardless of what happens in the atmosphere.
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I saw that movie in 9th grade and i really opened my eyes if there gonna give out free copies then it will open other peoples eyes too
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